Opposition leader Mai Ahmad Fatty, has suffered setback in his appeal against his disqualifications from next month’s presidential election.
Mr Fatty of the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) was excluded from the race by electoral commission Saturday evening for failing to met one of the requirements set out in the election law.
But Mr Fatty who served as Interior minister and presidential adviser in Mr Barrow’s government, insists that the commission had got it wrong.
He had prepared an appeal as required by law but was unable to hand it over to the electoral commission all commissioners had closed for the day.
In a media statement, Mr Fatty wrote: “I am currently at the IEC to file my appeal as required. The Chairman of the IEC announced publicly before the world that an appeal should be filed before midnight. Shortly after that public announcement, they closed their doors and went home. No one was there to receive my Letter of Appeal.
“I spoke to Mr. Sambujang Njie on the phone who told me he wasn’t the Teturning Officer and that it’s the IEC Chairman whose job it was to receive my Appeal. Then I spoke to Chairman Alieu Momar Njie himself who also ping ponged me back to Mr. Sambujang Njie, the CEO of IEC. At the end, they both concluded that nothing could be done, and that I had indeed fully complied with the law.
“My Appeal has not been received as dictated by the law. We know we submitted more than 200 legitimate from Banjul, and the IEC made an error. I request all our supporters to stay calm. We shall pursue the process according to law.”
